On Wednesday, art investment startup Maecenas opened online registration to participate in an event it is billing as “the world’s first ever blockchain-based auction of fine art.” But in my opinion, slicing into the details lays bare a number of deficiencies that also apply to much of the overheated art and blockchain space. (If you’re not familiar with that space yet, check out my primer from earlier this year.)
Research Notes
Diar – Forward Outlook Digital Assets & Regulation Newsletter
The Weekly Analytical Publication onDigital Currency, Assets, Payments & Regulation Diar provides concise coverage and analysis of significant developments within the global digital currency industry. This information service delivers the expert insight critical for informed decision making within the constantly evolving global finance & regulatory environment.
Source: Diar – Forward Outlook Digital Assets & Regulation Newsletter
Cloud Communities: The Dawn of Global Citizenship? – Globalcit
Contents:
Cloud Communities: The Dawn of Global Citizenship?, kickoff contribution by Liav Orgad
Citizenship in Cloud Cuckoo Land?, by Rainer Bauböck
Citizenship in the Era of Blockchain-Based Virtual Nations, by Primavera De Filippi
Global Citizenship for the Stay-at-Homes, by Francesca Strumia
A World Without Law; A World Without Politics, by Robert Post
Virtual Politics, Real Guns: On Cloud Community, Violence, and Human Rights, by Michael Blake
A World Wide Web of Citizenship, by Peter J. Spiro
Citizenship Forecast: Partly Cloudy with Chances of Algorithms, by Costica Dumbrava
The Separation of Territory and State: a Digital French Revolution?, by Yussef Al Tamimi
A Brave New Dawn? Digital Cakes, Cloudy Governance and Citizenship á la carte, by Jelena Dzankic
Old Divides, New Devices: Global Citizenship for Only Half of the World, by Lea Ypi
Escapist technology in the service of neo-feudalism, by Dimitry Kochenov
Cloud communities and the materiality of the digital, by Stefania Milan
Cloud Agoras: When Blockchain Technology Meets Arendt’s Virtual Public Spaces, by Dora Kostakopoulou
Global Cryptodemocracy is Possible and Desirable, by Ehud Shapiro
The Future of Citizenship: Global and Digital. A Rejoinder, by Liav Orgad
Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law & Policy vol1 issue 1
Cryptocurrency and the Shifting IRS Enforcement Model
Jun 23, 2018
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Given the IRS’s steady shift to a more holistic tax enforcement approach, the Author believes that the IRS is likely to take a broad-based approach to cryptocurrency tax enforcement.
Essays
Hard Forks on the Bitcoin Blockchain: Reversible Exit, Continuing Voice
Jun 23, 2018
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Hirschman’s Exit/Voice conception shines explanatory light on stakeholder responses in firms and states in moments of decline. We apply it here to the Bitcoin blockchain, where it illuminates strange and unencountered qualities of the reactive choices open to varied stakeholders.
Initial Coin Offerings: The Top 25 Jurisdictions and their Comparative Regulatory Responses (as of May 2018)
Jun 23, 2018
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The Author codes the regulatory responses of the top 25 ICO jurisdictions in the world and provides a comparative analysis of their respective regulatory actions.
SIDN : Transparantie in de muziekindustrie dankzij blockchain-technologie
De muziekindustrie staat bekend als een harde wereld. Het is niet vanzelfsprekend dat je je brood kunt verdienen met muziek maken en helemaal niet voor jonge artiesten. De industrie wordt gekenmerkt door haar ingewikkelde, bureaucratische structuur. Een structuur waarin artiesten maanden moeten wachten op uitbetaling van royalty’s, waarin complexe contracten onvermijdelijk lijken en transparantie niet lijkt te bestaan. Dat moet toch anders? Volgens de initiatiefnemers van IBT Music kan dat. Teun van Eil, projectleider van het initiatief, legt uit hoe hun geautomatiseerde blockchain-systeem het verschil kan maken en transparantie brengt in de muziekindustrie.
Source: SIDN : Transparantie in de muziekindustrie dankzij blockchain-technologie
BIS Blasts Cryptos in Special Report: “Beyond the Hype” – Mish Talk
Cryptocurrencies: Looking Beyond the HypeCryptocurrency technology comes with poor efficiency and vast energy use.Cryptocurrencies cannot scale with transaction demand, are prone to congestion and greatly fluctuate in value.Overall, the decentralised technology of cryptocurrencies, however sophisticated, is a poor substitute for the solid institutional backing of money.The underlying technology could have promise in other applications, such as the simplification of administrative processes in the settlement of financial transactions. Still, this remains to be tested.
Source: BIS Blasts Cryptos in Special Report: “Beyond the Hype” – Mish Talk
Blockchain Governance: Programming Our Future – Fred Ehrsam – Medium
Blockchains are unique because they 1) allow thousands of governance systems and monetary policies to be tried at the speed of software with 2) in some cases, much lower consequences of failure. As a result, there will be a Cambrian explosion of economic and governance designs where many approaches will be tried in parallel at hyperspeed. To be clear, I am including economic design and monetary policy (said another way, incentive structure) in governance because, like other aspects of the system, they can be modified as time passes.
Source: Blockchain Governance: Programming Our Future – Fred Ehrsam – Medium
Blockchains should not be democracies – Hacker Noon
But on-chain governance is dangerous, and I worry it will lead to disastrous outcomes. Blockchains should not be democracies, and the reasons why are subtle and counterintuitive.
Against on-chain governance – Vlad Zamfir
Unless there are governance processes that get Sybil-resistant input from node operators, on-chain governance therefore has always has the potential to disenfranchise node operators (and users) of the blockchain. If you are a blockchain node operator (or user), or if you care about blockchain node operators (or users), then I hope you will learn to regard on-chain governance proposals with extreme apprehension.
Against community governance – Dean Eigenmann
Governance is hard, especially for decentralized protocols. Allowing a community to govern a protocol does not make it any easier. On the contrary, it makes it exponentially harder and far more dangerous. The challenge is amplified when teams decide that the 1 token = 1 vote model is the best way to distribute power, and that all forms of hierarchies should be eliminated.One of the most important things to realize when creating governance models for decentralized protocols is that the model must be designed for the user, not for the token holder. This is where I believe a lot of broken models originate, when designing something that token holders will like, and not something that protects the actual users of a protocol. It is evident that there are a lot of projects who do not consider this, the opt-out model which some protocols implement are a clear indicator of this.1 token = 1 vote systems create terrible plutocracies, especially when considering who holds tokens.
Source: Against community governance – Dean Eigenmann – Medium